Shopping Online: Our Top Tips for Saving Money

by Jamie Lettis and Kevin Brasler

Last updated in November 2017

Savvy consumers can save significantly when shopping online by applying some elbow (actually mouse) grease. Before you load your cart with the latest fashions or that new kitchen gadget you’ve been lusting after, check out some of the favorite shopping strategies of Checkbook’s editors.

Use Shopping Bots and Barcode Scanners

There are dozens of smartphone apps that can help you compare prices, including ShopSavvy, Purchx, BuyVia, and PriceGrabber. Amazon has integrated its price-checking tool right into its app. Use one of these apps to search for products you’re considering or to scan the barcode of a product at a local store to get prices offered by other retailers.

Know the Code

When making purchases online, you’ll often see spaces where you can enter a promotional or coupon code. These spaces may as well be labeled “Hey! Here’s free money!” Using a discount code is the equivalent of handing a printed coupon to a checkout clerk. Do an internet search for discount codes for the site (for example, search for “Lands’ End discount code”). Although you’ll encounter expired or otherwise invalid codes, your reward often is worth the searching and trial-and-error. Two of our favorite coupon sites are RetailMeNot.com and CouponCabin.com, but there are many others worth checking. We recently found discount codes that saved 25 percent off a contact lens order from Walgreens.com; cut 40 percent from a BananaRepublic.com order; lowered Orbitz’s already discounted rate for a hotel stay by $30; and zipped up a 30 percent discount on a pair of boots from shoes.com. Plus we almost never pay for shipping because there are so many codes that offer it for free. And many sites will let you stack coupons for even greater savings.

Get Social

Follow retailers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and sign up for their promotional emails, which many retailers use to announce exclusive discount codes and other deals. And many stores offer one-time discounts of 10 to 25 percent when you join their email lists. Have more than one email address? Sign up with another address the next time you’re ready to buy.

Play Your Cards

You can usually get a big one-time discount for your first purchase made with a retailer-issued credit card, and with some you continue to get smaller regular discounts or rebates every time you use their cards.

For example, Target’s REDcard offers a five percent discount on all purchases, free shipping on most items, early access to special events and promotions, and an extra 30 days for making returns. Credit cards offered by Gap companies (Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta) offer a 15-to-35 percent discount off your first purchase when you open a card account, then five percent rebates when you use its card at its stores. Customers who have the Visa versions of the company’s cards also get a one percent rebate on all purchases made elsewhere.

But before signing up for a dozen retailer credit cards, know that each application will trigger an inquiry on your credit report, and might negatively affect your credit score. Even more important: Most store credit cards charge very high interest rates (routinely 25 percent APR or higher); avoid these high interest rates by paying the bill in full each month. And compare any rebate programs with those offered by other cards.(See our article on choosing a credit card for advice on picking credit cards and websites that help you choose the one best suited to your needs.)

Subscribe & Save

Programs such as Amazon’s “Subscribe & Save” offer big discounts on each order you place through them. With Amazon, you get at least 15 percent off your entire order and free shipping when you receive five or more subscriptions per month.

The catch is that by subscribing, you agree to receive automatic periodic shipments of the products for which you’ve subscribed. For example, if you’ve subscribed to receive 200 diapers a month, you’ll get 200 diapers a month until you tell Amazon otherwise. On the other hand, Amazon makes it easy to cancel or suspend these subscriptions, and sends subscribers reminder emails several days before their shipment dates so they have a chance to back out.

While Target and a few other retailers have begun to offer Subscribe & Save-type programs, Amazon’s remains the most visible—and yields tremendous and reliable savings for items like paper goods, pet supplies, and diapers. (See our articles on buying diapers and pet supplies for more money-saving advice.) In our article on buying diapers, we found Amazon’s Subscribe & Save prices, coupled with its Amazon Family program, yielded the lowest prices by far.

Another benefit to Subscribe & Save is free shipping, which bypasses the hordes at membership warehouse clubs and eliminates hauling 48 rolls of paper towels and anvil-heavy bags of pet food from store to car to home.

When You Go Brick and Mortar, Ask for a Price Match

Checkbook often finds the best deals online. But if a salesperson at a local store provided valuable buying advice, you might want to reward him or her with the sale. Or you may not want to wait for delivery by an online seller. And if it's an expensive item, delivery services may require that you be home to sign for it. But at many stores, you can buy local and avoid paying more. Checkbook finds that retailers often will match lower prices offered by their competitors, even if the other seller is an online store. Just use your smartphone or take along a printout of your deal to ask for a match. While this tactic seems like a hassle, Checkbook’s undercover shoppers found it was quite easy to secure lower prices on most items simply by asking for a lower-price match. One Checkbook shopper recently scored a $500 Kenneth Cole briefcase for $86 from a major department store by scanning the item with Amazon’s app and showing the current Amazon selling price to a manager.